Bollington's last evening bus has been saved from the chop thanks to a campaign by councillors, residents and the Macclesfield Express.

Bollington's last evening bus has been saved from the chop thanks to a campaign by councillors, residents and the Macclesfield Express.

The 10A, which is the only service to run between Bollington and Macclesfield after 5.35pm on week nights, was axed from Cheshire East Council’s list of subsidised services in a bid to save £12,000 from the budget.

But Arriva, which operates the service, has agreed to continue running it on a commercial basis until a full review has been carried out.

Residents and councillors feared the bus’ removal in January – which has about 900 passengers a week – would cut Bollington off from the rest of the community, preventing non-drivers, youths and the elderly from leaving or entering the town in the evening.

Cheshire east councillor, Bill Livesley, who led the campaign, said: "We would like to thank the many, many residents who have voiced their feelings about this. Without you the bus service would undoubtedly have been lost.

"And many thanks to the Macclesfield Express which has helped highlight the issues for Bollington and really get people listening."

Coun Livesley, who is now encouraging local businesses to support the bus by putting up timetables, added: "It will be reassessed eventually – nothing is guaranteed – but it’s good news for us."

Bollington’s mayor Coun Ken Edwards added: "There was a whole load of very important groups who were affected by this and they articulated their needs very well.

"The Macclesfield Express gave enormous publicity to the 10A which was a massive boost.

"It just shows these campaigns do count. I don’t think it would have happened if we had not had that strong reaction,"

He added: "The devil’s in the detail, Arriva had decided it will run it commercially but we will have to wait to see what fare structure they come up with. We need to encourage the public to keep using it.

"At one point they suggested Bollington Town Council should subsidise it but we don’t think that’s fair on residents."

A spokeswoman for Arriva said: "We will run the 10A as a commercial service in the short term, which will allow us to continue our discussions with the local council to determine the long term future of the service."

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